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A review by youreadtoomuch
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
5.0
I forgot how much I love sci-fi, it's been so long! Refreshing, thought at first I didn't think I would get into it. Glad I don't have to watch the movies as they're loosely based. The notion of a belief system in place is so wild to me and the ability of androids to not be able to empathize drove me up a wall. In a good way! Like, the need to differentiate, and build something far more superior while still thinking we, as humans, are the better species... insane.
Summary:
Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter in a dystopian San Fran. After the war, which who can even remember who won or why it started in the first place, a dust settled so thick and bothersome it forced the colonization of Mars. Most people able to emigrate did. Rick cannot because of his job and because he is deemed a regular: someone who can survive on Earth despite the dust. Someone whose genes are not affected by the dust.
Those that moved to Mars have been gifted with android, humanoid robots that are indentured to humans. As a bounty hunter, Rick chases those escaped andys (as androids are called) because escape means they've killed their humans. Unforgiveable. They've managed to return to Earth and they look just like us except they're smarter and are unable to care for others. But if they assimilate hard enough, they can go undetected.
The book starts with Rick convincing his wife to not schedule a 6-hour long depression from their mood organ because she's tired of wanting things or pretending to want something because dialed it in on her organ. Cool concept, very scary though. Rick leaves her to tend to his sheep. It is a fake, electrical. No one knows because a real animal is coveted and it's a thing of dignity to own a lie animal. He resents his neighbor for owning a horse unlike any other. There are interested buyers for any colts it produces, his neighbor won't sell to him. Rick confesses his sheep is fake to his neighbor, the neighbor promises not to tell anyone to save him from embarrassment. He leaves to work, already late.
At work, Dave Holden, the bounty hunter in charge, is injured from chasing down 8 escaped andys. He managed to retire two of them before the third lasered him. Rick's boss, Inspector Bryant, passes the remaining assignments to him but first he tasks Rick to travel to Seattle to test their Voigt-Kampf scale against the Rosen Association's andys and humans alike. There is a new android, the Nexus-6 that could possibly go undetected by their latest VK empathy test. The VK scale tests upon empathy while asking subjects several social situations they may find themselves in like witnessing the death of an animal or a human. As androids are unable to care for life, they fail.
Rick meets Rachael Rosen, related to the Rosen family. She shows them their extensive animal collection that boasts an owl presumed to be extinct according to the Sidney's catalogue of all animals and selling price. Before they allow Rick to test their mix of andys and humans, Eldon Rosen, the guy in charge and Rachael's uncle, encourages him to test Rachael first. The test is awkward and mixed results but Rick determines she's an android. Eldon confesses Rachael is human and may come off as lacking in care due to her upbringing on a ship that never saw or knew Earth until her later years. They attempt to bribe Rick into leaving with this information as it may mean the test could have lead to the deaths of humans and they promise him the owl. However, Rick insists on a retest and determines she is an android to which they confess. She cannot be executed as she is under the protection of the company and not an escaped andy from Mars.
With proof that their Voigt-Kampf scale works, Rick goes off in search of the third andy that hurt Dave Holden. He takes him out easily. The next target, an opera singer, goes awry when she calls the police claiming Rick is a pervert asking obscene and sexual questions. The cops escort him to a Hall of Justice claiming Rick, his boss, and place of work don't exist. Turns out this police a safe haven for androids under the charge of Garland, an android himself. They bring in Resch, their own bounty hunter to test Rick, Garland, and Resch with their own scale having never heard of the VK scale. Upon Resch returning with the test, Garland fires at him but Resch is faster and kills him instead. Garland dies but not without confessing to Rick when alone that Resch doesn't know he's an andy himself. Resch and Rick leave together to get the fourth andy with the assumption that they both know Resch is an andy and will deal with that later.
Once the fourth andy is retired, they test Resch and he is human afterall. Rick conceives the notion that andys would make the best bounty hunters beacuse they don't care about another andy's life which prompts Rick to feel unsure because he shouldn't consider andys as us but rather its. Whereas Resch is able to detach himself from them entirely. He asks to be tested and conclude he ties it to being empathic to female androids. Resch says it's a sex thing, he needs to have sex then kill not kill then want them. Rick walks away with $3,000 and goes and buys a goat.
His boss calls, he needs to retire the last three andys holed up in some abandoned apartment. Rick, tired, agrees because it means another $3k. The three andys are living with J. Isidore, a chickenhead (a human that's been affected by the dust and cannot pass the IQ test). Isidore drives the van for the fake vet hospital that sells and fixes electric animals. His days consist of being alone in the building he lives and merging with the empathy box that connects many to Wilbur Mercer in his endless walk up the hill where death meets him. Rocks are thrown at him from the unknown and actually hurt those who fuse with him on the box. He is the father of Mercerism, the belief that they are all individuals but united or whatnot. One day, someone moves in to the building. He is quick to befriend her. She says her name is Rachael Rosen but quickly changes her mind and says Prim. Prim is joined by other two and it is made clear they are part of the seven andys that escaped Mars. Isidore knows and doesn't care.
Rick calls Rachael for support on the remaining mission. She only agrees if he doesn't go for the remaining androids. He agrees if they can have sex. Rachael says one of the andys is a duplicate of her and it may be hard for Rick to kill her, she'll do it for him. They have sex, she doesn't feel so it's just something she does, he feels sick. He decides to retire the androids anyways, Rachael leaves. Meanwhile, the news anchor running 24/7, Buster Friendly, is running an expose on Mercer which his fusion box scenes were recorded years ago. They find the actor in the scenes, discloses they were part of 15 films and never learned who ordered them. But the empathy box fusion walking up the hill was recorded on a green stage with soft rocks being hurled at him. It's all fake.
Isidore has found a spider, Prim takes it apart and he is disgusted because they truly don't feel. Rick arrives and retires the andys. When he gets home, he learns Rachael has killed his goat. He leaves and drives to Oregon. He finds a toad, thought to be extinct and thinks to meet Mercer himself. He comes back, his wife informs him the toad is electric. He feels relief but wishes he didn't know. He and his wife decide to keep it and order food for their electric toad.
Summary:
Spoiler
Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter in a dystopian San Fran. After the war, which who can even remember who won or why it started in the first place, a dust settled so thick and bothersome it forced the colonization of Mars. Most people able to emigrate did. Rick cannot because of his job and because he is deemed a regular: someone who can survive on Earth despite the dust. Someone whose genes are not affected by the dust.
Those that moved to Mars have been gifted with android, humanoid robots that are indentured to humans. As a bounty hunter, Rick chases those escaped andys (as androids are called) because escape means they've killed their humans. Unforgiveable. They've managed to return to Earth and they look just like us except they're smarter and are unable to care for others. But if they assimilate hard enough, they can go undetected.
The book starts with Rick convincing his wife to not schedule a 6-hour long depression from their mood organ because she's tired of wanting things or pretending to want something because dialed it in on her organ. Cool concept, very scary though. Rick leaves her to tend to his sheep. It is a fake, electrical. No one knows because a real animal is coveted and it's a thing of dignity to own a lie animal. He resents his neighbor for owning a horse unlike any other. There are interested buyers for any colts it produces, his neighbor won't sell to him. Rick confesses his sheep is fake to his neighbor, the neighbor promises not to tell anyone to save him from embarrassment. He leaves to work, already late.
At work, Dave Holden, the bounty hunter in charge, is injured from chasing down 8 escaped andys. He managed to retire two of them before the third lasered him. Rick's boss, Inspector Bryant, passes the remaining assignments to him but first he tasks Rick to travel to Seattle to test their Voigt-Kampf scale against the Rosen Association's andys and humans alike. There is a new android, the Nexus-6 that could possibly go undetected by their latest VK empathy test. The VK scale tests upon empathy while asking subjects several social situations they may find themselves in like witnessing the death of an animal or a human. As androids are unable to care for life, they fail.
Rick meets Rachael Rosen, related to the Rosen family. She shows them their extensive animal collection that boasts an owl presumed to be extinct according to the Sidney's catalogue of all animals and selling price. Before they allow Rick to test their mix of andys and humans, Eldon Rosen, the guy in charge and Rachael's uncle, encourages him to test Rachael first. The test is awkward and mixed results but Rick determines she's an android. Eldon confesses Rachael is human and may come off as lacking in care due to her upbringing on a ship that never saw or knew Earth until her later years. They attempt to bribe Rick into leaving with this information as it may mean the test could have lead to the deaths of humans and they promise him the owl. However, Rick insists on a retest and determines she is an android to which they confess. She cannot be executed as she is under the protection of the company and not an escaped andy from Mars.
With proof that their Voigt-Kampf scale works, Rick goes off in search of the third andy that hurt Dave Holden. He takes him out easily. The next target, an opera singer, goes awry when she calls the police claiming Rick is a pervert asking obscene and sexual questions. The cops escort him to a Hall of Justice claiming Rick, his boss, and place of work don't exist. Turns out this police a safe haven for androids under the charge of Garland, an android himself. They bring in Resch, their own bounty hunter to test Rick, Garland, and Resch with their own scale having never heard of the VK scale. Upon Resch returning with the test, Garland fires at him but Resch is faster and kills him instead. Garland dies but not without confessing to Rick when alone that Resch doesn't know he's an andy himself. Resch and Rick leave together to get the fourth andy with the assumption that they both know Resch is an andy and will deal with that later.
Once the fourth andy is retired, they test Resch and he is human afterall. Rick conceives the notion that andys would make the best bounty hunters beacuse they don't care about another andy's life which prompts Rick to feel unsure because he shouldn't consider andys as us but rather its. Whereas Resch is able to detach himself from them entirely. He asks to be tested and conclude he ties it to being empathic to female androids. Resch says it's a sex thing, he needs to have sex then kill not kill then want them. Rick walks away with $3,000 and goes and buys a goat.
His boss calls, he needs to retire the last three andys holed up in some abandoned apartment. Rick, tired, agrees because it means another $3k. The three andys are living with J. Isidore, a chickenhead (a human that's been affected by the dust and cannot pass the IQ test). Isidore drives the van for the fake vet hospital that sells and fixes electric animals. His days consist of being alone in the building he lives and merging with the empathy box that connects many to Wilbur Mercer in his endless walk up the hill where death meets him. Rocks are thrown at him from the unknown and actually hurt those who fuse with him on the box. He is the father of Mercerism, the belief that they are all individuals but united or whatnot. One day, someone moves in to the building. He is quick to befriend her. She says her name is Rachael Rosen but quickly changes her mind and says Prim. Prim is joined by other two and it is made clear they are part of the seven andys that escaped Mars. Isidore knows and doesn't care.
Rick calls Rachael for support on the remaining mission. She only agrees if he doesn't go for the remaining androids. He agrees if they can have sex. Rachael says one of the andys is a duplicate of her and it may be hard for Rick to kill her, she'll do it for him. They have sex, she doesn't feel so it's just something she does, he feels sick. He decides to retire the androids anyways, Rachael leaves. Meanwhile, the news anchor running 24/7, Buster Friendly, is running an expose on Mercer which his fusion box scenes were recorded years ago. They find the actor in the scenes, discloses they were part of 15 films and never learned who ordered them. But the empathy box fusion walking up the hill was recorded on a green stage with soft rocks being hurled at him. It's all fake.
Isidore has found a spider, Prim takes it apart and he is disgusted because they truly don't feel. Rick arrives and retires the andys. When he gets home, he learns Rachael has killed his goat. He leaves and drives to Oregon. He finds a toad, thought to be extinct and thinks to meet Mercer himself. He comes back, his wife informs him the toad is electric. He feels relief but wishes he didn't know. He and his wife decide to keep it and order food for their electric toad.